Cone embarrassed by ‘unprepared’ Kings

Barangay Ginebra absorbed a rude awakening at the hands of San Miguel Beer and head coach Tim Cone was not too happy about it.

“You know it’s not a lot of fun,” Cone said as he exited their dugout following a 93-104 bludgeoning Friday in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Ginebra was a shell of the team that crushed Terrafirma two nights prior when it dug its own grave after allowing the Beermen to race to a 22-6 lead.

The Kings never had a chance to tie the game, much less get a taste of the lead. Ginebra even got buried to a 23-point deficit.

“They beat us black and blue right from the start of the basketball game,” Cone lamented.

“We came in and looked like we were totally unprepared for their intensity. I don’t know, ’cause we’ve been working so hard trying to catch up, doing two a days (training) and stuff. We just didn’t have our legs. I don’t know,” said the tactician, left red-faced from the humiliating defeat.

Ginebra shot poorly from the perimeter with 12-of-44 clip compared to San Miguel Beer’s 42 percent shooting. Overall, the Kings shot 42 percent from the field while the Beermen made more than half of their attempts for a 52 percent field goal efficiency.

“You have to credit their defense,” Cone said.

“But pretty much it was too much June Mar (Fajardo) tonight. He was what, like 28 in plus-minus tonight? That’s incredible,” he added.

The San Miguel ace center muscled his way to a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds, ramming down the Kings’ defense.

“He really outplayed us when he was on the floor and CJ (Perez) hit some really timely four-point shots that really crushed any kind of uprising we were trying to make,” Cone said.

The 25-time champion coach summed up their night as a total embarrassment.